Project Gotham Racing

"Racing Games Have Been Re-Made"

About this time all you guys and girls have swung home with your xboxes in hand, and lept into a new dimension of gaming with incredible graphics, superior sound, and amazing fun. But it's a new dimension, one you're not readily used to. And you still think to yourself, ''Why do I have PGR when GT3 was arguably the best racing game ever??? Isn't that like getting the same thing twice??? '' Well here, you get that question answered once and for all. I plugged in Project Gotham, cautious of how it might look if there was slow down, and after playing Mad Dash, my friends didn't know what it was like. After the initial hesitation, I soon found out why this game deserved its praise.

GRAPHICS: 10/10. Truely, if you have ever been a fan of racers, Project Gotham isn't for you. What do I mean by that??? Well initially we all thought that this was another racer game, and that we'd had enough of GT3. But after you really get into it, you find out, that this is far from ''just another racer''. The bump mapping and visual reflections from the sun, water, and sky are so amazing they have to be taped to be believed. With a video camcorder. You can see the inside of people's cars, their actual faces, their physics...body parts :p But anyway, with all the graphical tricks of XBox, where the graphics really stand out is in the cities. They are lushly detailed, real polygonal environments and fully interactive. In times square you can see the real time stock quotes go by as they happen. In the middle of manhattan you can see the people shopping in the stores themselves, and in tokyo, even more of the same. But getting right down to it, the expression and detail, on these characters is amazing, and the real time damage the cars physically show, is remarkable and never ever possible until now.

STORY: 9/10. You're a owner of a brand new car, and have to win a contest in which your friends will attempt to outdo you, by pulling off some of the most lewd hair racing tricks imaginable. It's like Tony Hawk mixed with Tokyo Street Racer. Only this time, you're callin the shots. There isn't a fleeting moment where you'd like to strangle the competition, as you're constantly trying to get the most points, and outdo your buddies.

CONTROL: 10/10. Truely the most responsive controls I've ever held....for a racer that's not even really a racer!!!! In fact this game is a trickstyle freelancer which is tons of fun!!!!!! You can now screw around, do hairpins, and get rewards based on how dangerously you drive!!!!!! The road ragers dream, as well as that of every one of my buddies. Sure there's trophies. Who needs to race, and collect stuff, when we can mess around like crazy??? Which brins up the next point: Pulling off skater curves. These are awesome and absolutely one of the best aspects. You can actually get the car to nosepin, creating a freelance ride that not even guiness could capture!!!! It's so sweet and fun but most of all, the better you drive, the more dangerously you drive, the more secrets you unlock!!!!!!!

FUN FACTOR: 10/10. This game is tops. Me and my buddies couldn't stop playing and one of them fessed up and sold his PS2 to the local store bought XBox, PGR, and started playing right with us!!!!! We rented a PS2 just to beat MGS2 for the hell of it before going back to the insane crazy world that is in PGR. Finally we start unlockin some stuff, mega cool we think, then the competition pulls off a CHEAPO move, and we lose all our kudos!!!! Well then me & joe go back in for revenge. This time he picks up a secret weopon, that's right the joker. We finally figured out he had lost his mind. He somehow was able to unlock this special item through crazy driving, now all the kudos he gets are DOUBLED!!!!!!! We feel jealous, but the night is far from over.

SOUND: 10/10. The best sound we've ever heard from a console, EVER!!!!!!! Truely as we were floored by the voices, the real time acting, all of the feeling, it got us more hooked then the stereo in MGS2!!!! Having double surround DDS5.1 in a system is UNBElIEVABLE!!!!!!! We then shook our heads in a sigh, as we knew we were done for. All our money was going to be completely spent on XBox games now, and we all had to get jobs to cover our lazy ass expenses. But as it seemed to draw to that end, our roomie looked up and said ''Welcome To The Next Level''.

Truely after you go home, put away HALO, or stop DOA3, or line up in frustration after getting wasted in Cel Damage, pick up that copy of PGR, and prepare for the ride of your life.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/01, Updated 11/18/01